Duck eats snake!

Driving into one of the local villages that straddle the track into my field area, there was a duck (domesticated white one - with Muscovy Duck head markings, others in the group looking much more like Muscovy Ducks) sitting in the middle of road back to us. The driver hooted and the duck did not move. As we edged closer to convince it to move, it turned sideways on and to my amazement I realised that it was in the process of swallowing headfirst a 40-50cm long bright green snake, some 5mm thick. When it had it just about completely swallowed it calmly waddled off.

Has anyone seen behaviour like this? I wasn't even aware that a duck would think of eating a snake that size, or a snake at all for that matter.

......and on Day 27 (3 days to go) my Guinea list has grown to 87 species with the latest West African species being Senegal Parrot, Black-bellied Firefinch, Sun Lark and Orange-cheeked Waxbill. The list is given below, with the now 32 non-Southern Africa species highlighted in red.

The things you see when you don't have your camera with you! I have to confess, I'm as bemused as you, I would never have thought ducks would eat snakes, sounds bizarre. Maybe we could name a new species after you - Gray's West African Snake-Eating Duck. <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

I'm definitely applying for a job on your next expedition, even if it's just hosing down the tyres on the 4x4!!

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